Determining sex

We had a baby shower today at work, and I was part of the organizing committee. As a part of my duties I picked up a few decorations. Boy, have times changed!! When I was having babies, back in the 80’s, it was extremely unusual to know the sex of the baby before it was born. This was first generation ultrasound so you could barely tell it was a baby when they took a peek. To find out the sex they had to have that thing that I can’t spell (not even well enough for Spell Check to get), the thing where they stick a needle through your belly button and extract fluid. This usually meant you were having some major league problems with your pregnancy to begin with. Not a fun time for anyone.

Your other option for determining the sex was the local witch doctor, or countless grandmas and aunts. Their methods involved all manner objects being suspended over your belly, from a sewing needle, to a pencil, or a lock of the father’s hair. The sex was pronounced depending on weather the object moved up and down or side to side, or rotated in a clockwise or counterclockwise manner. There was also the “What are you craving test”, salty items for boys and sweet items for girls. And, of course if you were carrying the baby high it was a boy, while girls you carried low. Or was it the other way around? There were a million ways to tell if your were having a boy or girl.

The most telling factor about all this homespun knowledge and wisdom is that when you went to buy shower decorations, they were all in unisex color schemes. You would have had to look really hard for pink or blue. In fact you would pretty much have had to make your own or special order them. Now days it’s the complete opposite, almost all the shower decorations are either pink, or blue, and unisex colors are a bit more hard to find. They’re still out there, but not in the same kind of variety.

I can’t imagine not wanting to know the sex. I hear people talk about not wanting to know, but 9 times out of 10 they end up asking. They always say the same thing, “I want to be surprised.” I figure you can have your surprise now or later, it’s not like you knew at the moment of conception what you were creating. Of course that day is probably not far off. I wonder how they will do it. Will there be some pill or gel you use that will block all the boy sperm so you get a girl, or all the girl sperm so you get a boy? It would kind of be like the club houses we built as a kid and put up the “No boys allowed!!” signs. Now there’s a packaging concept!